According to DigiTimes, Taiwan-based IC designer VIA Technologies has filed a lawsuit against MediaTek for patent infringement by its optical storage controllers, VIA said in a statement today. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco Division), alleges that MediaTek breached VIA’s US patent 6,459,665 with its DVD-ROM, CD-RW and combo controller products. The patent relates to an apparatus and operating method that increases the bandwidth of high-speed optical storage devices, according to VIA.

VIA will seek a preliminary injunction on the sale, display and import of these products into the US. It may also ask for the destruction of inventory held in the US and an unspecified level of compensation, VIA said.

MediaTek’s comments were not immediately available. Last year, MediaTek sued both VIA and AOpen, a Taiwanese optical storage drive maker, claiming that AOpen had used VIA CD-ROM drive chips which allegedly infringed MediaTek’s patent rights.